


Weird Times with Peggy and Howard

by AgeOfAlejandro



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bisexual Howard stark, Bisexual Peggy Carter, Conspiracy Theories, F/F, Magic, UFOs, an unholy blend of marvel; actual history; and conspiracy theories, of various kinds
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-08 07:56:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12250218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgeOfAlejandro/pseuds/AgeOfAlejandro
Summary: Peggy Carter is now a co-director of SHIELD and it is much weirder than she bargained for.Featuring: Cartinelli, conspiracies, UFOs, magic, Chester Phillip’s intense hatred of the CIA, grey morality, aliens, spirits, alien-spirits, Howard and Jack Parson’s ongoing aggressive and eccentric bisexual off, and actual historical weirdness/horror.





	Weird Times with Peggy and Howard

**Author's Note:**

> I'm tweaking the timelines and how magic works. Also, I have no idea how long this will be and Peggy is bisexual Because Reasons. I will probably add warnings and tags as we go and just fyi, posts will not be regular. I am a busier human than I would like.
> 
> Also also, I’m aware of the anti Semitic nature of a lot of conspiracies, but rest assured, I will not be playing into that malarkey. I have a snippet already written I’ll be inserting somewhere where that gets shot down. If anyone is concerned, I will happily provide whatever the current version of that tidbit is for your perusal.

 June 8, 1946

* * *

Peggy wiped her palms off on her skirt, trying to be discreet. It was her first day as co-director of the new organization. So new, in fact, it still had no name (though she had an idea as to what it should be called).

Howard strolled into her bare office like he owned the place, Chester Phillips on his heels with a cup of coffee in hand.

“So, Carter,” Phillips said, “are you ready?”

She laughed, her nerves jangling loudly. “I suppose.”

“Nerves are natural,” said Phillips, tucking his sunglasses into his breast pocket and sitting in a chair as he switched to his spectacles. “But we’re going to change the world, so find your readiness soon.”

“Hard to change the world when you don’t even have a name.” Howard said, plopping into the other seat.

“I...I have some thoughts about that,” Peggy said. “Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. SHIELD.”

“SHIELD,” Howard repeated, rolling the word around in his mouth. “I like it.”

Phillips looked at her over his glasses. He knew what she was doing. Peggy stared right back. “Fine.” He leaned back in the chair.

“Thank you, Colonel Phillips.” Peggy knew her smile was nervous.

“If we’re going to be working together,” he said and sipped his coffee, “you should call me Chester.”

Peggy felt warmth bloom in her chest and smiled. “Thank you. Please call me Peggy, in that case.”

He gave her one of his rare smiles. “I will."  


* * *

July 30, 1946

* * *

 It was already hot even though it was barely nine. Peggy’s clothes clung to her in damp, unpleasant places, and she couldn’t wait for autumn to blow in. Today was going to be horribly long, she could feel it already.

Peggy had a meeting today with two of her department heads who were busy fighting over responsibility. Or rather, one of them was overstepping his bounds by demanding the right of dealing with some of the weirder things SHIELD handled. Mostly, that meant UFOs so far.

Daniel Sousa was one those department heads and the one who should be managing the subject. He was a good friend and one she trusted to be level headed and skeptical.

Frank Jackson, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. He was a busybody who insisted that he had a right to have a thumb in every pie. Jackson also had fewer critical thinking skills than the average goldfish. She had put him in supplies, which made his demand to be involved with UFOs all the more absurd. He also seemed to consider undermining Peggy to be his main hobby.

Naturally, Peggy was about three inches from firing Jackson.

They sat before her. Daniel’s expression was serene and his body language open. Jackson had his arms crossed and his jaw clenched tight enough to crush molars.

“If I am in charge of supplies, I need to know what the other departments are doing in specific detail,” Jackson said, his body drawn in like a spring.

“The answer is no,” she said, mustering her patience. “This falls solely under Sousa’s umbrella and you don’t need to--”

“The hell it does!” Jackson said, leaning forward and slamming his palms on the chair arms.

Peggy gave him the coolest look she could manage. “My decision is final.”

“Give the director her due respect,” Daniel said, giving Jackson a frosty look. “She is your _boss_.”

Jackson turned to Daniel and threw up his arms. “What business does she have even _being_ one of the directors? That is not a woman’s place!”

Peggy did her best to look unimpressed instead of furious. “Pack up your office,” she said. “If you cannot accept my decision, you have no place at SHIELD.”

“You can’t do that!” he squawked at her, clapping his hands on the chair’s arms again.

“I think you’ll find I can,” Peggy said, leaning back on her chair and deliberately keeping her body language open and in control. “I put you in that office.”

Jackson sneered at her, his upper lip peeling back like a dog’s. “Phillips hired me, not you.”

“He certainly did,” she agreed, “but,” Peggy said as she steepled her hands above her desk, “I am a co-director of this organization and I decided your placement. Now get out before I have you removed.”

Baring his teeth at her, he stood up and stalked out. Jackson slammed the door on his way out hard enough to rattle the glass window pane and his silhouette turned in the direction of Chester’s office.

“The CIA will probably snap him up,” Daniel observed, hands resting on his cane between his knees. “And he’ll spill every bean he knows about.”

She shrugged and leaned back in her chair. “Very likely. But I suspect he doesn’t read all his reports before signing them and frankly he handles _supplies_.”

Daniel nodded and they sat in silence for a moment. “Do you need anything from me?”

“Not at the moment, no,” Peggy replied, smiling at her friend. “Thank you for asking, though.”

“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile of his own. “I guess I have some reports to read through, huh?”

“Oh _yes_ ,” Peggy replied, smiling a little wickedly, “yes, you do.” She sat up and reached into her desk to pull out a folder. It was an inch and a half thick.

Daniel sighed as she pushed it across the desk and leaned forward to retrieve it, thumbing through the pages. “Do we have any idea what these things are?”

“No,” Peggy replied, leaning back in her chair and steepling her fingers again. “My contacts in the Royal Air Force don’t think they’re -- usually -- actual extraterrestrials but that poses more questions than it answers.”

“Yeah, it does,” Daniel said, nodding absently as he paused on one of the reports. “I am inclined to trust the RAF, but any theories from our -- American -- boys?”

“Not yet,” she said with a shrug. “As far as I have heard, anyway. Chester would know better.” Peggy let her nose wrinkle.

He sighed and leaned back. “I’ll ask Chester and let you know what he says.”

“Thank you,” Peggy said with a nod, turning back to her own work. “Please keep me posted.”

“Will do,” Daniel replied as he stood up and made his way out.

Later, Chester appeared at her doorway, eyeing her over his glasses. “Are you sure you want to fire Jackson?” he asked as he shut the door behind him.

“Positive,” she replied, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ll support your decision, but he’s a valuable asset.”

“If he can’t take direction from me because I’m a woman,” Peggy replied, sharper than she meant to, “no, he isn’t. He tries to undermine me at every turn and I cannot have that from a field agent, much less a _department head_. Not to mention he believes everything he reads.”

Chester held up his hands, palms out. “I understand. But might demoting him be better? You know he’ll leak to anybody who picks him up after this.”

“It won’t be any better, because he’ll do it from wherever I put him.” She paused and looked at Chester. “Why don’t we put it out there that he can’t take orders? That should deter other agencies from picking him up.”

“Or at least from putting him in a position of responsibility,” Chester mused, rubbing his chin absently. “But they’ll still milk him for whatever he knows.”

Peggy shrugged. “Let the boys at Foggy Bottom know. I’m reasonably certain he never reads reports and his department doesn’t handle anything of incredible sensitivity anyway. If the CIA learns something from him, it won’t be much.”

“I don’t want them to know anything if I can help it,” Chester replied, his thunderous brows furrowed over his eyes. “James Angleton shouldn’t be in charge of a houseplant, much less the CIA.”

“I agree, but it’s not like we can control that, or aren’t keeping an eye on their ops ourselves,” Peggy pointed out.

Chester’s expression got even more thundery and his lips thinned. “We should know what the hell they’re doing so we can keep them out of our way.”

“I agree with you there,” Peggy replied. “They’re reckless and stupid. But what is he going to tell them that they aren’t already doing themselves?”

He harrumphed. “I still wish there was something else to do about Jackson.”

Peggy shrugged. “There isn’t and we should have him searched before he leaves,” she said. “And probably isolate him from the other agents as much as we can.”

“He’s probably spreading lies like wildfire about you.” Chester nodded as he stood up. “I’ll have him out within the hour and we can go over new candidates at lunch.”

Peggy _had_ been planning to eat with her girlfriend, but she nodded. Angie would understand, she hoped, and Peggy would make it up to her as thoroughly as possible tonight. “All right, let me give my friend a call to let her know I have to cancel.”

“Sorry to interrupt your lunch plans, then,” Chester said as he opened the door, “but--”

“--This is important, I know.”

Chester nodded again and closed the door.

______________________

Peggy trudged through the door much later than she had intended to and found that Angie had left her dinner on the cooker. She flicked on the hob and walked toward her office to put down her bag. Angie, the wonderful, longsuffering woman that she was, stuck her head out of their bedroom when she heard Peggy open the office door.

“Evening, English,” Angie said, her eyes warm and affectionate as she walked the few feet between them.

“Hello, my darling.” Peggy kissed her when she was within reach. “I’m sorry I had to cancel lunch,” she said, leaning their foreheads together as she wrapped her arms around Angie. “But I had to sack somebody and find his replacement in the same day.”

“I know what I signed up for when I started this relationship” Angie said fondly before she kissed the tip of Peggy’s nose. “Plus, I _know_ you’ll make it up to me.”

Peggy laughed. “Oh yes, yes I will.”

“So at least three orgasms?” Angie’s smile was sly and inviting.

“ _At least_ three,” Peggy agreed and leaned in to kiss her again.

After a disappointingly short kiss, Peggy’s stomach rumbled and Angie pulled away. “Food first though.”

“What if I wanted to eat you instead?”

“I’m dessert,” Angie replied, an impish smile on her face, gesturing for Peggy to hand over her bag.

Peggy nodded. That was acceptable.  
____________________________  


When she walked into work the next day, she got more side-long looks than usual. Chester had been right when he’d said Jackson would spread lies about her.

By the time her second coffee break rolled around, she’d had enough of the tension. “Alright,” she said over her cuppa, trying to keep her voice level, “we’re having a department head meeting. Get in the conference room.”

Nobody moved and she gave them her best unimpressed look. She didn’t cross her arms, as much as she wanted to. “ _Now_.”

Daniel was the first to comply. “C’mon,” he urged the others.

Her new supply head, Arthur Goodspeed, followed Daniel and slowly the others started to move, too.

Peggy watched them shuffle off and then strolled to Chester’s office. She knocked on the door and opened it at his call.

He looked up at her over his pile of reports. “What can I do for you, Peggy?” Chester asked around the cigar in his mouth.

“I called a department head meeting to deal with the tension,” she said, “and I’d like you to be there as support.”

“Alright,” he said and stood up, grabbing his ashtray on the way. “You should do most of the talking.”

She nodded briskly. “And you’ll sit behind me, correct?”

Chester nodded. “I supported your decision and I support you as a director. You made the right call,” he added. “I spent some time thinking about it last night and you were right. Jackson was a disaster waiting to happen.”

“Thank you for that,” she said, giving him a small smile.

Chester gave her a brisk nod again.

Peggy strolled through the open conference room door, nerves jangling, and Chester shut it behind them. The room was hot and hazy with cigarette smoke already so she paused to open a window. It was only going to get worse if she didn’t.

“So,” Peggy said when she reached the head of the table. “There is enough tension directed at me in this room to cut with a knife and we need to resolve it. We cannot be an effective organization if we don’t.”

Chester settled behind her after directing a few of their underlings to open more windows and she breathed in the warm, comforting smell of his cigar smoke.

“I have my suspicions about why, but I’d like to hear your thoughts.” That was a dangerous gambit, one that opened the way for complaints about her gender, but she was trying to be an open-door kind of boss.

Silence reigned for a couple breaths and, eventually, Goodspeed said, “I think there are questions as to why you fired Jackson. It seemed sudden, and perhaps a little unjustified?”

Peggy looked around, noting the minute nods a few others made. “Alright, I’ll be honest with you, as much as I can without violating Jackson’s privacy.” She watched the expressions of a few men in particular. Most of them seemed to consider this to be fair. “I concluded he was not a good fit for the agency, based on his performance and behavior over the last few months. We value your thoughts and opinions and we take them into consideration, but ultimately we -- Philips, myself, and Howard Stark -- are the decision makers.”

“And if that does not sit well with a department head,” Chester said in a puff of smoke from behind her, “that person does not belong here.”

“Again,” Peggy said, nodding, “we will never punish you for disagreeing with us and we value your perspectives, but when we make a decision, it is final. Crossing that line is a threat to the integrity and function of SHIELD and that cannot be tolerated.”

Daniel glanced at Peggy and paused before he added, “I’ve seen the way he acts behind closed doors with Director Carter -- one of the best agents I’ve ever worked with -- and I have to agree with her decision. His behavior was inappropriate and unbecoming of a department head.”

The other men seemed to mull this over and in ones and twos decided that was valid enough.

Peggy would never not resent the fact that multiple men had to back her up for her decisions to be accepted.


End file.
